(Charlottenburg 1900–1986 Salzburg)
“Petersfelsen bei Beuron” (Upper Danube Valley, Baden-Württemberg), signed, dated A. Birkle 22, oil on cardboard, 70 x 51 cm, framed

Exhibited and with a full-page colour ill. in the catalogue:
Albert Birkle, Kulturamt und Museum Carolino Augusteum, Museumspavillon im Mirabellgarten, Salzburg 1980, plate 9

Provenance:
Neue Münchner Galerie-there acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, Germany

“In Birkle’s work, landscape constitutes one of the most important chapters, in addition to the glass windows produced later. These are predominantly landscapes of somber character: winter landscapes, autumn atmospheres, landscapes in the fog and dusk...,” writes Albin Rohmoser in the exhibition catalogue mentioned above.
The work “Die Petersfelsen bei Beuron” of 1922 counts amongst these. It creates a strongly horizontal effect due to steeply towering, jagged, rugged cliffs and to pallid, eerie light, and displays an autumnal landscape steeped in red and brown. Birkle generates a diagonal pictorial division by means of the formation ascending towards the left, and in this way he divides the work into a foreground and background. The aforementioned rocks with dark cave entrances are closer to the viewer; the artist represents them richer in detail, yet stylised. Further in the distance and increasingly blurry is a thick forest, condensed into a unity, which extends to the horizon and allows the viewer’s gaze to roam even further.